HavanaJournal.com: Cuba Politics

Cuban Volunteer Going Off For Weeks to the Cane Fields 1963

Posted August 20, 2004 by publisher in Cuba Politics.
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To pay for Russian gasoline and machinery, Cubans have sugar cane. To get the precious crop in, men are coaxed to “volunteer,” going off for weeks to the cane fields while others “volunteer” to do double duty by filling in on the jobs they left. What peasants wanted most of all from the Castro regime was a bit of land all their own. Instead, land reform has created communal farms on which all work together, eating in mess halls. Food there is plentiful, and modern housing is being built for farmers.